The tolerant nation

I have realized that I am the citizen of a country which has immense patience high level of tolerance for the difficult conditions they live in.
How else can we explain the lack of inaction from our end even after we struggle with endless series of horrifying incidents.
In just a last few months we have seen the biggest aircraft disaster, where hundreds lost their lives. As always we are yet to receive an official report of what went wrong. Hundreds of dreams were shattered in that disaster but we moved on.
Within a month came the news of Gyaneshwari Express train derailment. A suspected Naxalite attack which killed close to 170 people and wounded many more. It left physical and emotional scars on all those people who travelled in that ill fated train.
A few weeks back, there was an incident of deadly Chlorine gas leak which thankfully was spotted in time and hence did not take any life. But it still affected quite a few and they had to be admitted in a critical condition. Yet again there was no clear explanation given as to why this deadly gas was lying in the dockyard for years now and why was it not reported earlier. It was a disaster waiting to happen. What’s more this came in the wake of the injustice meted out to the Bhopal gas tragedy victims.
More recently the train crash in West Bengal took lives of many. Already the buck passing and blame game has begun. The politicos are busy ensuring that there image remains untarnished and the fact that yet again hundreds lost their lives is secondary.
The biggest threat to the country today are the internal terrorist whom we know as the naxalites and Maoists. Thousand of innocents lose their lives to them every year. And what does our government do. They ‘strongly condemn their action’ and turn the other way. Of course the fact that these groups were born because as a rebellion against our corrupt and oppressive political system is another story.
What about the young students who go to Australia to pursue their academic ambitions. There have been deadly attacks of them. In more than one case the Australian police have allowed the attackers to leave. But our government is not questioning them. They are not taking strong action. The fees paid by these students is a big support to Australian economy. Moreover our children don’t go there by unfair means. They are chosen on their merit and hard work, and if that country cannot protect the other nationals then they should not admit other nationals in their institutes.
Our regular life is also filled with perils. With inflation soaring, the middle class is forced to live on shoe string budget.
Every day the newspapers are filled with stories of bomb blasts, attacks, terror, unjust and delayed court rulings. We sigh, put down the newspaper and move on. But how long will we keep doing that. How long will we keep hiding the scars that each one of us have from – the train bombing, 26th July rains, 26/11 attacks and simply go on.
No, I do not believe that we resort to violence. But we need to begin questioning our government, we need to stop taking things lying down, we need to wake up as a nation. And most importantly we need to begin voting.

Plight Of Women

I am reading a book by an English author on the plight of women in Saudi Arabia. The very things we take for granted such as freedom, education, opportunity to work, even a breath fresh air are forbidden to them.
The atrocities committed against them are mind boggling. However somewhere in the middle of the book I started seeing the horrifying similarity between the situation of women there and here in India.
What is ironical is that we have a festival to celebrate the goddess of power. She is put on a pedestal and worshipped, yet the actual treatment of women is sickening.
Female infanticide is rampant in our society. Already the male to female ration is alarmingly low and is going down even more. The surprising aspect is that the women of the family also support this barbaric act. It never fails to surprise me that man in his limited thinking is not understanding that he is bringing about his own extinction.
Another heinous crime which is being committed in the name of family pride is ‘Honour Killing.’ Though this crime is not new, but it has now caught media attention. Many young lives have been sacrificed, ruthlessly ended because they dared to live differently and not follow the dogmatic and outdated laws set by our society. As a kid I used to hear about these horror stories in small villages. But recent cases are testament to the fact that the so called educated and urban families of India are only modern in their lifestyle not in their thinking.
Scarily the number of dowry deaths of only been increasing. Hidden behind names like suicide or accident this evil still persists and hounds young women.
Child marriages are still practiced in some society of our country, ending ruthlessly with it many dreams of young girls. And the crime against women is increasing at an alarming rate in both urban and rural areas. News of ‘witch hunts’ and inhuman treatment of women branded as witches are rampant in rural India.
These are just a few issues haunting every woman who is born as an Indian, because by birth she is fated to be treated as a second class citizen.

Monsters Amongst Us

Since the Kurla cases have come to light it has exposed another horrific facet of human nature.
There is something disturbingly scary to know that among us walks a human being who is capable of picking up little innocent girls who are practically infants (the youngest was 5 years old), raping them, killing them, mutilating them and then dumping their bodies.
What could possibly motivate a human being to commit such a heinous crime and that too not once but thrice? I have read the reports which suggest that the accused has a mental problem and is a social psychopath. But then does this behavior of his and violent tendencies not reflect in his daily lives and habits. Should that not give him away or at least expose the workings of his sick mind to those around him.
What is scarier is that our police force has not yet been able to capture this monster. Yes, today’s headlines scream that the case has been solved. But when you read on, you realize that the accused DNA matches the sample taken from only one victim.
If this is the case has a group of sick men who are doing this together then where are the other culprits, when will they be caught and how can we be sure that the guy arrested is really the cold blooded killer who has been preying on scared little children of Kurla. Does his background match the diagram drawn out by consulting psychiatrists on this case?
What if he is not, what if the real killer or killers are still out there? Can the terrified parents keep their kids at home forever? Can they sleep in the nights again?
These are the poor people of our country. Those who live in a 6 X 4 rooms and call it there home. Who still send their kids to school and hope that they are able to fly the coop. They have big dreams for their kids. They don’t have enough, but at least till now they had their dreams and peace of mind. Looks like that has been snatched too.